Musa Mountain and Vakıflı village, near Antakya, in Hatay, Turkey.

The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is a 1933 novel by Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel based around an event that took place on Musa Mountain in 1915 during the Armenian Genocide in Turkey. The book was first published as Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German in November of 1933. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh achieved great international success and has been credited with awakening the world to the evidence of the persecution of the Armenians. Werfel also wrote prophetically about the consequences of Nazi anti-Semitism; The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was banned in Nazi Germany and was labeled "undesirable" by the government, leaving it to be sold secretly. Werfel was expulsed from the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1933. Image File history File links Vakifli_musa_mountain_location. ... Image File history File links Vakifli_musa_mountain_location. ... Antakya (Antiokheia, Antakiya, 36°11′N 36°9′E), located on the eastern side (left bank) of the Orontes River about 20 miles from the sea, is the capital (merkez ilçe) of Hatay Province, Turkey. ... Hatay is a region in the middle east around the town of Iskenderun. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Jews (Hebrew: יהודים, Yehudim) are followers of Judaism or, more generally, members of the Jewish people (also known as the Jewish nation, or the Children of Israel), an ethno-religious group descended from the ancient Israelites and converts who joined their religion. ... An author is the person who creates a written work, such as a book, story, article or the like. ... Franz Werfel, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1940 Werfels grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna. ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Armenian Genocide The Armenian Genocide (also known as the Armenian Holocaust or the Armenian Massacre) refers to the forced mass relocation and related deaths of hundreds of thousands or over a million Armenians, during the government of the Young Turks from 1915 to 1917 in the Ottoman Empire. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The term National Socialism has been used in self-description by a number of different political groups and ideologies, some of which have no connection with the Nazis; see National socialism (disambiguation). ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Although written as a novel, the historical background content of the book has generally been accepted as fact, rather than the fiction inspired by fact that it actually is. In the 30s, Turkey pressured the United States State department to prevent MGM Studios to produce a film based on the novel. As William Albig writes: “In terms of the present capital organization and system of distribution the foreign market is very important to the American industry. The good will of foreign exhibitors and publics is often sought by changing the content of films, deleting offensive sections. It is reported that production ... [of] The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was halted, in Turkey's interest.” (“Public Opinion” by William Albig; McGraw-Hill, 1939). A filmed version of the story was eventually made independently and was released theatrically in 1982.

Events of Musa Mountain

Five months after receiving the expulsion order, on September 22nd 1915, most of the Armenians in this region, who were to be sent into the desert which would have ultimately meant a death sentence, went to Musa Mountain. The Ottoman army force in that region was not enough to oppose and overcome the five thousand people fortified in such a mountain. Whether there was a strong engagement of forces is hence unclear. September 22 is the 265th day of the year (266th in leap years). ... 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

After spending forty days at Musa Mountain, the Armenians got onto two French ships that they had contacted. The side of Musa Mountain close to the sea is very steep, and, adding to the difficulties, the ships could not approach the land and thus it was necessary to construct boats to reach them. The process of getting on the ships was difficult and painful. These ships then took the Armenians, who were already tired and starved, to a camp in Port Said in Egypt, after a long journey. After the end of the First World War, the Armenians in 1919 went back to Musa Ler under French protection. Port Said (postcard around 1915) Port Said (31. ...

Musa Dagh often has been compared with the resistances in the Jewish ghettos during the Second World War, one of those, the ghetto of Bialystok found itself in the same situation when in February 1943, Mordecai Tannenbaum, an “inmate” of the Vilna Ghetto was sent with others to organize Bialystok's resistance. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt, suggests that Musa was often used in the Ghettos as a reference to successful resistance: “Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our Musa Dagh , to write a proud chapter of Jewish Bialystok and our movement into history.” (Source: “Anthology of Holocaust Literature” by Mordecai Bernstein, Adah B. Fogel, Jacob Glatstein, Israel Knox, Samuel Margoshes; Jewish Publication Society of America, 1969)